'Opy 1 



THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF 1876, 



SPEECH 



OP 



HON. R. C. McCORMICK, 



OF ARIZONA, 



'^/' 



IN THE 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



MAY 6, 1874. 




" No other achiievemeiit of human power has yet rivalled the 
Protean wonders and glories of a world's exposition of the 
varied trophies of genius, skill, and industry." — Horace Greeley. 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, 

1874. 



/ 



V 



SPEECH 

OF 

HOI^. EICHARD 0. McCOEMICK, 



The House having under consideration the bill (H, R. No. 2986) to appropriate 
$3,000,000 in aid of the centennial celebration and international exhibition of 1876 — 

Mr. Mccormick said : 

Mr. Speaker: Nearly teii years since tlie propriety of grandly 
celebrating the completion of the first century of onr national exist- 
ence became a subject of popular consideration and interest. It was 
conceded that there should be something more than mere noisy demon- 
strations of patriotism and pride, and those who were most earnest 
in the desire for a dignified, befitting, and useful commemoration of 
the important event in the history of this 

Realm to sudden greatness grown, 

conceived the idea of holding an international exhibition. 

To lift the undertaking above anything like local or limited in- 
fluences Congress was asked to charter a board of centennial com- 
missioners, to consist of one commissioner and one alternate commis- 
sioner from each State and Territory in the Union. This was done 
by act approved March 3, 1871, and it was declared by the same act 
"that an exhibition of American and foreign arts, products, and 
manufactures should be held under the auspices of the Government 
of the United States in the city of Philadelphia in the year 1876." 

The commissioners were to be appointed by the President of the 
United States on the nomination of the governors of the States and 
Territories respectively, and it was made their duty to prepare and 
superintend the execution of a plan for holding the exhibition. 

Subsequently, by act approved June 1, 1872, Congress created what 
is known as the centennial board of finance, an organization made 
up of two citizens from each congressional district in the Union, and 
empowered to secure subscriptions of capital stock to an amount not 
exceeding $10,000,000, to be divided into shares of ten dollars each ; 
the proceeds to be used by said corporation for all the expenditures 
required in carrying out the objects of the act creating the centennial 
commission. 



These t^vo organizations brought into existence by Congress and 
acting under the direct x^rovisions of law, have been zealously en- 
gaged in the vast preparations necessary for the successful carrying 
out of so great an undertaking as an international exhibition. Of 
the scope an^ extent of their labors the volume I hold in my hand, 
the third annual report of the centennial commission to Congress, 
"will give gentlemen some idea, although no one not actually involved 
in the work will readily comprehend how much has been done and 
how much remains to be done. 

As a member of the executive committee of the commission, to 
which committee of thirteen the whole management of the business 
of the commission is intrusted for the year, I may say that no pains 
have been spared to gather from all sources all facts and figures of 
value in connection with the holding of the great exhibitions in 
Europe. Vienna was visited last summer by a number of the commis- 
sioners, and from a date prior to the opening of the exhibition held 
there to its close agents authorized by the executive committee were 
present and actively occupied in behalf of the commission. 

The elaborate reports of Professor W. P. Blake and Henry Pettit, 
esq., which are embodied in the report of the commission to which I 
have referred, present a perfect epitome of the organization of the 
Vienna exhibition in all its details, so arranged and classified that it 
will be invaluable for the use of the commission and board of finance. 
The defects and the failures as well as the advantages and triumphs 
of the exhibition are carefullj^ set forth and many practical conclu- 
sions and suggestions of importance are presented. 

Much interesting and valuable matter relating to other foreign ex- 
hibitions is given in these reports, and from many soiu'ces the com- 
mission has been supplied with information which will, I think, lea^ 
to an avoidance of the mistakes in buildings and the useless expendi- 
tures in management or mismanagement which have characterized 
some of the exhibitions and resulted in i>ccuniary loss where there 
need to have been none. 

I speak particularly of this because in the present debate gentle- 
men opposing the bill under discussion seem to have little idea of the 
thorough, I may say the exhaustive manner in which the centennial 
commissioners have entered into the consideration of every question 
bearing in any way upon the management of exhibitions like that 
proposed for 1876, the firat of its national and international class pro- 
jected in the United States. 

The commission has also had the benefit of the reports of various 
State coniJiiissioners to Vienna, and as an offset to the assertion fre- 
quently heard that it is yet too early in the history of the United 
States to atlompt an international exliibition, I take those words from 
tlu- report of Mr. Charles Francis Adams, jr., the Massachusetts com- 
missioner: 



:h 



There is good reason to believe that every condition exists necessary to make a ^^ 

decided success of the proposed centennial exhibition. The court pageant, which ^|^ 

has played so brilliant and essential a part in its great European prototypes, will, — — 

it is true, necessarily be wanting. The mercantile element, however, which has — 

proved the mainspring of all recent expositions, will there be present in a more ZL^ 

than ordinary degree. ^L. 

If a member of tlie careful and conservative — tlie historic Adams ;;;;— 

family can speak tlins confidently. New England need not fear to ~ 

come to the aid of the enterprise. IT" 

OUR SUCCESS m EUROPE. " 

Mr. Speaker, onr success at London, at Paris, and at Vienna, with Z^ 

bnt a limited and imperfect exhibit in each instance, and at Vienna a HIL- 

degree of confusion in the management of our department, alike un- . ^ ;iIL 

fortunate and discreditable, upon whoever the blame may rest, has 
been such as to make it evident that we need not for a moment ques- 
tion our ability as a people to provide, as required by the act creat- 
ing the centennial commission, a most creditable exhibition of the 
^' national resources of the country and their development, and of its 
progress in those arts which benefit mankind," a disjilay fitting to 
make, as further required by said act, " in comparison with those of 
older nations." 

My distinguished friend from Pennsylvania, [Mr. Kelley,] in his 
eloquent speech at the opening of this debate, called attention to the 
fact that at London, Paris, and Vienna there was simply an ''Ameri- 
can department " containing but a few specimens of the products and 
industries of a part of the States, and nothing at all calculated to 
illustrate the resources and development of the whole Republic, the 
many States united as one. 

The patriotic gentleman from Massachusetts, Mr. Banks, so long 
an able advocate of the national honor upon this floor, in his memora- 
ble speech in 1866 upon our representation at the Paris exposition of 
1867 thus referred to our position at London : 

Every one must confess that so far as the Grovernment was represented in the 
exhibition of 18.51, it was a melancholy and discreditable feature. We were saved 
from humiliation if not disgrace by the unexpected and marvelous skill and power 
of our own unappreciated mechanics. 

No one can forget the surprise created in London over the unex- 
pected triumphs of American ingenuity and skill, in honor of which 
even Punch forgot his prejudice and sang to amazed John Bull : 

Tour gunsmiths of their skill may crack. 

But that again don't mention : 
I guess that Colts' revolvers whack * 

Their very first invention. 
By Yankee Doodle, too, you're beat 

Downright in agriculture, 
"With his machine for reaping wheat, 

Chaw'd up as by a vulture. 



6 

Nor need I refer in detail to tlie victories achieved at Paris in 1S67;- 
■vrliere the United States received many awards. In communicating 
to Congress the reports of the commissioners to this grand exposition, 
which I may say are now classed among the most valuable of our 
public documents, Mr. Seward, then Secretary of State, said of such 
international exhibitions : 

Their beneficent influences are many and -^de-spread. They advance human 
knowledge in all directions. Through the universal language of the products of 
labor, the artisans of all countries hold communication ; ancient prejudices are 
broken down ; nations are fraternized ; generous rivalries in the peaceful fields of • 
industry are excited ; the tendencies to war are lessened, and a better understand- 
ing between capital and labor is fostered. * * * One of their most salutary re- 
sults is the promotion of an appreciation of the true dignity of labor and its para- 
mount claims to consideration as the basis of national wealth and power. 

At Vienna last year the United States was represented in twenty- 
three of the twenty-six groups into which the exposition was divided, 
and secured four hundred and forty awards ; but IVIr. Adams states 
that "the representation was in no way calculated to give a correct 
impression of our progress or condition as a j)eople." 

There can be no doubt, I think, that the resources and industries 
of the United States as now developed and advanced will warrant an 
exhibition upon our own soil that will surprise the world. 

Horace Greeley, writing in 1871 upon the proposed exhibition, 
which he appeared to consider even then as an assured success, spoke 
thus of the progress of American industrj^ : 

TVe are advancing with rapid strides toward excellence in every department of 
industrial art, and the exposition of 1876 may confidently be expected to embody 
gratifying evidence that American industry, regarded as a whole, is equal, not 
merely in productive efficiency, but in skill and in taste, to that of any other nation 
on the globe. 

THE INTERNATIONAL FEATURE. 

But the world must be here in 1876 in order to stimulate us to the 
exertion necessary to our own certain success. It has been well said 
by an able writer that " The only way to obtain a completely na- 
tional exposition is to make it international. Our own people will 
not exhibit themselves to themselves." There is no inspiration in 
such a programme, and for one I look upon the international feature 
of the proposed exhibition of 1876 as not only unobjectionable, but 
essential, if we would reap profitable results. I am at a loss to under- 
stand why gentlemen oppose it, for a purely national exhibition would 
cost nearly or quite as much and would not be nearly as likely to 
command interest, even at home, as an international exposition. It 
cannot be said that other nations will refuse to come, for upon the 
President's simple proclamation and commendation of July last, which 
the Secretary of State says is not an invitation, a number have al- 
ready signified their piu'pose to come. 



Our late minister to Mexico, a distinguished citizen of Indiana, [Mr. 
Nelson,] now upon tlie floor of tlie House, informs me that the peo- 
ple of " our sister republic " were greatly pleased at the receipt of the 
proclamation, and the government at once decided to be represented. 
He says that not less than one hundred artisans are already at work in 
the city of Mexico preparing articles of skill, taste, and utility for 
exhibition at Philadelphia. 
Of the feeling in Europe Professor Blake, in his report, remarks : 
I can report tlie existence of tlie most friendly and even enthusiastic feeling in 
regard to the centennial exhibition. It is looked forward to \\j all classes with in - 
quiring interest. The statesman and political economist expect to derive from it 
fresh and more correct information regarding our institutions and resources and a 
deeper view of the great future of the American people. The men of science ex- 
pect richer harvests than ever before of material for investigation, and look for- 
ward to the coming reunion of the nations in the New "World as the opportunity 
to see some of its marvels with their own eyes. The industrial classes, with appe- 
tites whetted by what they have seen of our inventions and manufactures at Paris 
and Vienna, desire a nearer view and a broader association with the elements of 
our successful progress. The merchants and tradesmen believe that in our exhibi- 
tion they will have the most favorable opportunity to extend their trade and to 
introduce products of a higher culture than we yet can claim. These are some of 
the elements, in general, upon which the interest in our exhibitioh is based ; but I 
have not mentioned one which I am sure, from personal interviews with leading 
men of the varioiis foreign commissions, jurors, and statesmen, comes of a broad 
and liberal sympathy with all that conduces to human progress and the realization 
that international exhibitions are potential in this direction. Much of the interest 
is engendered by the recognized fact that for the first time the American people 
are to have an international exhibition. It is spoken of as the first international 
exhibition in America under Government sanction and patronage. The Govern- 
ment is regarded as its responsible founder and sustainer. 

All over Europe the exhibition is talked of and written of in a 
manner which shows that great importance is attached to it. At 
Vienna the commissioners from various countries parted with the 
earnestly expressed hope that they might meet in America in 1876, 
and it is known that many of them have already urged their govern- 
ments to the most liberal provision for representation at Philadel- 
phia. Nothing can be more absurd than the idea that foreigners will 
hesitate to come here in 1876 because it is the centennial year of our 
national independence. The Fourth of July week, with its inevitable 
outburst of patriotic ardor, may not be as enjoyable to some of them 
as to us; but to none will it, in my judgment, prove offensive. Cer- 
tainly not to Great Britain ; for the fact is notorious that our decla- 
ration of independence and the war which followed it, indicated prin- 
ciples now universally held in England, and constituted the triumph 
of a party to which all Englishmen now belong, whether they call 
themselves conservative or liberal. 

But the celebration of the Fourth of July will be but an incident in 
the programme for the year, and the exhibition will not in any sense 



8 

"be a political glorification or a remiuder of foreign or domestic dif- 
ferences or complications. For one I am ready to trust tlie good sense 
and good taste of the people, and I repel the thought that the repre- 
sentatives of any country or government may not visit us in 1876 with 
the assurance of the kindest and most respectful treatment. In a 
recent address the eminent Professor Tyndal said : 

During my four montlis' residence in tlie Fnited States I did not liear a single 
wMsper liostile to England. This will sufficiently indicate to you my experience 
of the feeling of the people of the United States toward this country. Either they 
do not hate us, as alleged, or, if they do, the manner in which they suppressed this 
feeling, out of consideration for a guest, proves them to be the most courteous of 
nations. 

BELATIONS OF THE 60VEENMEXT TO THE EXfflBinON. 

And now a word touching the relations of our Government to this 
exhibition. This suhj ect was referred to by the gentleman from Penn- 
sylvania []VIr. EJELLEY] and will doubtless be enlarged upon by the 
gentleman from Connecticut, [Mr. Hawley,] the president of the cen- 
tennial commission. But I am not willing to pass it by without ex- 
pressing my great surprise at the ground assumed by gentlemen 
upon this floor. In the face of the act of Congress of 1871, which 
distinctly declares that the exhibition shall be held under the ausi:)ices 
of the Government of the United States, and of the act of 1872, which 
reafi&rms it, we are now told that the Government has nothing what- 
ever to do with it, and that to ask an appropriation from Congress 
toward the cost of the grand affair is little less than an impertinence. 

Because on the announcement of enthusiastic Pennsylvanians that 
that State would bear all the expenses of the exhibition the act of 
1871 was made to provide as follows : 

Sec. 7. That no compensation for services shall be paid to the commissioners or 
other officers provided by this act from the Treasury of the TTnited States ; and the 
United States shall not be liable for any expenses attending such exhibition, or by 
reason of the same, 

It is insisted that the commission has no right to ask the appropria- 
tion proposed in the bill now before the House, and that to do so would 
be a violation of good faith. Gentlemen lose sight of the fact that 
the commissioners had nothing to do with the passage of this aet and 
are in no wise responsible for it, but were appointed some time after 
its adoption. Furthermore, its provisions have been strictly obeyed. 
No compensation for services of commissioners has been paid by the 
United States, or by any one else for that matter, and the Govern- 
ment has not been, and is not under this act, held liable for any of 
the expenses of the exhibition. 

Mr. DAWES. But you accepted that law with the stipulation that 
you would not call upon Congress for any aid. 

Mr. MYERS. There was no such stipulation. 

Mr.McCOEMICK. The gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Myers] 



9 

is correct. There was no such stipulation in the act of 1871 or in 
that of 1872. The gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Dawes] will 
observe that these acts simply provide that under them the United 
States shall not he made liable for any debt or obligation incurred, 
and neither by the centennial commission nor the centennial board of 
finance has the United States been made liable for a dollar even to 
this hour. 

But I submit that nothing in either of these acts makes it incon- 
sistent or improper for those having the responsibility of the exhibi- 
tion upon their hands to now come to Congress and ask a direct 
appropriation toward the necessarily large outlay required in order 
to make the exhibition what it should be, a grand and complete suc- 
cess. When we consider that in Europe the governments have been 
proud to bear nearly the entire expense of the exhibitions and have 
deemed it profitable to do so, it is to me incomprehensible that there 
should be opposition here to the payment of a sum supposed to be no 
more than one-third of the cost of the exhibition of 1876, which 
Congress has directly declared shall be held " under the auspices of 
the United States," and the commissioners for the control of which 
are commissioned from each State and Territory by the President 
under authority of law. 

The cost of the Vienna exhibition, grossly exaggerated, is held up 
as a warning that instead of the sum which competent architects and 
engineers, who have considered the subject for many months, esti- 
mate the buildings and their appurtenances at Philadelphia will re- 
quire, a much larger sum will be needed, and that the appropriation 
now asked of Congress is but a small part of what will be demanded 
from the Government for the purposes of the exhibition. To quiet 
this groundless clamor it may as well be announced now as at any 
time in this debate that the president of the commission [Mr. Haw- 
ley] is in possession of a letter from John Welch, esq., chairman of 
the centennial board of finance, authorizing the statement that no 
additional appropriation will ever be solicited of Congress. While I 
do not think Mr. Welch called upon to give any such pledge, I will 
say for the benefit of those to whom he is not personally known that 
he represents the solid men of Philadelphia and that his word is his 
bond. 

I am of those who think the whole cost of the international exhibi- 
tion might with propriety be borne by the Government, and that the 
legislation in 1871 and 1872 which prohibited any liability, and upon 
which such stress is laid by some gentlemen upon this floor, is a posi- 
tive discredit to Congress, and should be blotted from the statute- 
books. Such legislation, I respectfully submit, is unworthy a great, 
powerful, and patriotic nation. 

For one, I have never liked the plan of raising money by a stock 



10 

subscription as provided in the act creating tlie board of finance, and 
I am not surprised that it does not win popular favor. The Legis- 
lature of Tennessee recently sent a series of resolutions to Congress 
accompanied by the following preamble : 

Whereas the mode of raising funds for celebrating the hundredth anniversary of 
American independence by our joint stock subscription necessarily tends to con- 
vert a great national occasion into a mere money-getting speculation is inconsistent 
with the patriotic memories it is intended to commemorate, and utterly unworthy of 
the people whose liberty it is designed to fittingly immortalize: Therefore, &c. 

Tennessee, by these resolutions, instructed her Senators and re- 
quested her Representatives to propose, advocate, and sustain, by 
their votes, such an appropriation by Congress for said centennial 
exhibition as may be necessary to make said proposed celebration 
thoroughly national and international and worthy alike of the Gov- 
ernment and people of the United States. 

I call the attention of gentlemen who say that no State has asked 
Congress to aid the centennial to these resolutions and to' this extract 
from a recent message of the governor of New Jersey to the Legisla- 
ture of that State, which body has appropriated the sum of $100,000 
to the centennial fund, an act worthy the loyal sons of the heroes of 
Monmouth and Princeton : 

Congress inaugurated the movement under national auspices, and the President 
of the United States has announced to all nations that the exhibition wiU be held. 
The people desire that it shall be held, and they expect Congress to make such pro- 
vision as will not only insure it against possibility of failure, but render it at least 
equal to any international exhibition that has been held in any part of thei world. 

Unquestionably the people desire that the international exhibition 
shall be held, and they look to Congress to insure it against possibil- 
ity of failure. They do not believe the country so poor that it cannot 
grandly celebrate its centennial and give to all the nations of the 
earth ocular demonstration of what one hundred years of republi- 
can government has here done to develop art, science, and skilled 
labor. Instead of condemning members of Congress for voting money 
for such a purpose once in a century, my judgment is that the people 
will visit their displeasure upon all who hesitate so to do, and they 
will laugh at the plea of a want of constitutional authority in view 
of the appropriations for our representation at Paris and Vienna, and 
the aid rendered innumerable projects of far less interest and impor- 
tance to the nation than this. 

THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Mr. Speaker, before passing to show some of the valuable results 
which may be expected to attend such an exhibition as it is proposed 
to hold in 1876, 1 will say a word in justice to the good people of 
Pennsylvania, who have been so harshly and unjustly criticised in 
the present discussion. Beyond urging the city of Philadelphia, 
where our independence was declared, as the most appropriate place, 



11 

as it undoubtedly is, for tlie centennial]demonstrations, whatever tliey 
might be, they have arrogated to themselves no undue prominence or 
influence, but constantly shown an unselfish desire that the manage- 
ment of the exhibition might be broadly national and as free as pos- 
sible from local control. In the centennial commission the State, like 
the others, has but one commissioner and an alternate, and in the ex- 
ecutive committee but a single representative. Yet Pennsylvania 
has already subscribed millions of dollars toward the expenses of the 
exhibition and given an example of liberality and patriotism which 
entitles her to high praise rather than cold criticism upon this iloor. 
Apart from the question of historic associations, the great Common- 
wealth of Pennsylvania, the key-stone in the Federal arch, has, in my 
opinion, strong and peculiar claims to have the centennial demonstra- 
tions made within her borders. More than one-fourth of the entire 
wealth of the nation is in Pennsylvania, and no State better illustrates 
the marvelous growth and progress attained in a single century un- 
der our government of the people. At the date of the Penn charter 
the population was about 2,500 ; at the death of Penn, thirty-seven 
years later, the population was about 100,000 ; and at the declaration 
of independence, about 325,000. Since then the census returns show 
the following remarkable growth : 

• Population. 

1790 434,373 

1800 602,365 

1810 :.. 810,091 

1820 1,047,507 

1830 1,348,238 

1840 1,724,033 

1850 2,311,786 

1860 2,906,215 

1870 3,521,951 

In 1870 the total number of acres in farms in the State was 17,994,200 ; 
the yield of wheat was 19,672,967 bushels. In coal the yield was more 
than one-half of the entire product of the United States. In 1872 the 
total product of iron in the United States was 2,388,260 tons, of which 
Pennsylvania furnished nearly one-half. In the same year the yield 
of petroleum was 6,531,675 barrels. 

The State commissioner of statistics has compiled a series of tables 
for 1872, in which the different sources of wealth are classified and 
arranged in six groups, each of which is no doubt as nearly correct 
as it is possible to make it. The result is as follows : 

1. Eeal and personal property $3,475,831,851 00 

2. Banks and building associations 433, 250, 801 66 

3. Railroads and telegraph and canal companies 393, 913, 734 60 

4. Corporations, &c., not included in above 1, 519, 128, 870 60 

5. Manufactures of all kinds, &o 522,078,949 00 

6. Coalandoil ' 129,710,855 00 

Total 6,473,914,461 86 



12 

"Wliat product can vre show to the world with, more of honest pride 
than a magnificent commonwealth like this, so rapidly and wonder- 
fully developed under the influence of our free institutions ? 

A MOST PKOFITABLE IXYESTMEXT. 

And now let us consider some of the results likely to come from the 
exhibition of 1876, for the practical American mind demands profit 
from every investment of money. The exhihition conducted upon the 
grand scale which it must attain will cost much, but I think there was 
never before such an opportunity for securing a great return for 
money appropriated. In the life-time of those who hear me speak 
there will not, in my opinion, be another such occasion for seeming 
to the nation and people grand and lasting benefits in the best inter- 
ests of peace and industry. 

The London exhibition of 1851, begun in a season of financial dis- 
tress, produced results of the greatest magnitude and widest range. 

In a i)aper read by Lord Lennox, M. P., before the Society of Arts 
in 1866, he observed : 

It may be and is tindonbtedly true that as a nation we -vrere, at tlie exhibition of 
1851. not equal t-o the French in our designs, and in our appreciation of artistic beauty 
of form ; biit it is also true that at the exhibition of 1S62 our inferiority was admit- 
ted on all hands to be unspeakably less apparent than it had been eleven years be- 
fore on a similar occasion. 

"WTien the exhibition was over and the results known, never was public opinion 
more unanimous than in declaring that the great exhibition had succeeded in clearly 
manifesting the existence of certain principles, that, if carried out. would confer a 
solid benefit on those engaged in manufactures and commerce, by bringing aboiTt, 
in the memorable words uttered by the late priace consort at Birmingham "the 
introduction of science and art as the unconscious regulators of productive in- 
dustry." 

The increase in exports during the two years following the English 
exhibition of 1851 was £24,485,050 ; during the two years following 
the exhibition of 1862, £36,476,789. 

The Paris exhibition of 1867 was highly advantageous to France, 
and, as results have shown, peculiarly profitable to the L^nited States. 
The section of the exposition occupied by American contributions con- 
tained such a collection of specimens of our agricultural, mineral, and 
other natural productions as had never before been seen in Europe. 
The richness and extent of these products were the wonder and admi- 
ration even of those who had heard and read of our vast resources, and 
especially to those representatives of the great financial centers of 
Europe who were seeking for evidences of the material basis of our 
public credit with a view to ascertaining the safety of our bonds for 
permanent investments. 

In connection with this exhibit, which was the visible and convinc- 
ing e%idence of their truthfulness, were printed statements of the ex- 
tent and resources and the inducements to settlement of everv State 



13 

and Territory, each of whicli was accompanied by a general map on 
which the mineral deposits were indicated. These documents were 
freely distributed in the principal languages of Europe, and the fif- 
teen millions of visitors from every quarter of the globe were placed 
face to face with these sample products, the extent of which and the 
opi)ortunity of enjoying which were set forth in the printed govern- 
mental ]Dublication prepared at our General Land Office, which reached 
every government and every important library, as well as every 
center of intelligence in Europe. The interest of many of the people 
of Germany, the British dominions, and other Eui'opean states was 
tbe greater in this question because of the large numbers of their 
countrymen and kindred, who had sought new homes in America, and 
the effect was corresi^ondingly strong upon their minds. 

Now let us see what we can deduce from the officially prepared 
statistics of this Government as to the probable results of this 
exhibition upon immigration. 

It may be interesting to state, first, that the lowest average value 
of immigrants to a country receiving them as permanent residents is 
estimated by Dr. Edward Young, the Chief of the Statistical Bureau, 
at |800 per head. Dr. Engel, an eminent statistical authority at 
Berlin, makes the average at $1,125, in which the estimate of Mr. 
Frederick Kapp,oneof the commissioners of immigration for the State 
of New York, coincides. 

During the first years of our domestic strife immigration declined 
to a rate much lower than the usual average, namely : For 1861 it was 
91,920 against an average of about 130,000 for the previous three years. 
In 1864, 1865, and 1866, under the stimulus of war bounties and special 
efforts to encourage immigration, it reached the following numbers : 

I}nmigration. 

1864 193,191 

1865 248,394 

1866 314,480 

In 1867 it was 298,358; in 1868, 297,215— a gradual downward tend- 
ency until the influences of our exhibit at Paris had sufficient time to 

bear fruit, when we have the following results: 

I'tniinigration. 

I860 385,287 

1870 356,303 

1871 346,938 

1872 437,750 

1873. 459,803 

I do not undertake to say positively what percentage of this five 
years' immigration is due to the influence of the exhibition of 1867 ; 
but the average value of it to the United States, at $800 per immi- 
grant, (Dr. Young's estimate,) is considerably over $200,000,000 a 
year. Placing my estimate, then, at 5 x^er cent., we have as a result 



14 

$10,000,000 from this one- item of increased resources added to the 
most permanent and indestructible wealth of the country in one 
year by onr exhibition at Paris. Assuming that there would be some 
decrease with time in the influence to which I have ascribed this 
item, I will reduce the percditage to 3 per cent, for the second year, 
which gives six millions, and to the next 2 per cent., or four mil- 
lions ; to the next 1 per cent., or two millions ; making a total of 
twenty millions. 

But what will be the results in increased immigration and in the 
abiding effects upon our public credit of such a representation as we 
can make of our agricultural and mineral resources, of all the vast 
range of raw materials which our soil will produce, of our industries 
and the compensation of those engaged in them ? 

Our public-laud svstem and the abundance of land open in all direc- 
tions to settlement enable us to secure a direct pecuniary return for 
outlay in an international exhibition such as no Euroijean nation could 
ever enjoy. European governments, cities, communes, provinces, soci- 
eties, and the foreign press of all lands will be represented by their 
best talent, sent out to analyze and report upon these great features 
of national resources, which control the movements of capital and 
enterprise. They will send into every department of European life 
the story of our progress and our develox)ment and of our golden op- 
portunities for all in the coming century. 

EFFECTS ON NATIONAL CREDIT AND SECUHniES. 

There is another important form of benefit to the nation and its 
finances which presents strong claims for recognition in reviewing 
the past as well as in contemplating the future, and that is the very 
marked effect which inevitably flows from a concentrated and well- 
selected exhibt of our agricultural, mineral, and other specimens 
which indicate the nature and extent of our productive resources and 
energies. 

How was it at Paris in 1867 ? It will not be disputed that the 
market value of our securities was materially aflected by the judg- 
ment of European financiers, and that such an exhibit as has been 
described would demonstrate inexhaustible resources. AVhat do the 
statistics prepared by our Treasury Department disclose on this sub- 
ject ? That the value of our currency advanced as follows : 

1867 70.9 

1868 71.5 

1869 72.7 

1870 81.1 

1871 88.7 

Of course there is no way of positively ascertaining the extent of 
this appreciation in the public securities due to this exhibition ; but 
it would hardly be extravagant to credit the representation in the 



15 

heart of Europe with ^ of 1 per cent., aud it is probable that it may 
have caused at least 2 or 3 per cent, of this rise in value. Counting 
the public debt at an even two thousand millions, an appreciation of 
•^ of 1 per cent, gives as the result $10,000,000 benefit to the Govern- 
ment and people, bondholders and tax-payers of this country from 
this source. 

What would be the result in this respect not only upon our present 
but upon our future welfare of a successful international exhibition ? 

And may we not legitimately regard this thirty millions derived 
from two sources which had their origin in our representation at 
Paris as a sufficient warrant for conferring upon our people the 
larger benefits of an international exhibition upon our own shores, 
especially when it can be done by borrowing, as it were, from the earn- 
ings of a former exhibition, and will enable us to warm the sentiment 
of patriotism into new and vigorous life by joining our people. North 
and South, East and West, in a celebration which for moral grandeur 
will have had no parallel in all the ages ? 

Another benefit which lies at the very foundation of national pros- 
perity and wealth has been partially realized by Great Britain as the 
result mainly of the first great exhibition held within her dominions. 
British statesmen, manufacturers, and merchants discovered with 
alarm that their industries had met with a competition which threat- 
ened to undermine a vast proportion of her ex^jort trade. They found 
that this was due to the superior workmanship and taste imparted to 
French, Belgian, Russian, and other products by artisans and design- 
ers indebted for their proficiency to superior systems of practical in- 
dustrial education and training. Another cause of this progressive 
superiority of foreign competitors was the careful application of science 
in invention and processes to the economical and rapid production of 
the articles, fabrics, and commodities which supplied human wants, 
freighted the ships of Britannia, gave her the balance of trade, and the 
monopoly of the seas. 

With all the energy of her best minds, her iDrof oundest scientists, and 
industrial capitalists, under the leadership of the wise Prince Albert, 
who had inaugurated the exhibition, the British government directed 
itself to securing its industries against further encroachments, and to 
regaining its old prestige in international competition. 

It was a slow and laborious process ; but they succeeded in estab- 
lishing the great industrial, artistic, and scientific museum at South 
Kensington, which has since become the source and center of a na- 
tional system of industrial training which has shown its ever-increas- 
ing efficiency at succeeding exhibitions, thus exerting a saving influ- 
ence on manufactures, art, and trade. 

However triumphantly we have competed and may again compete 
in various departments of machinery and invention with other nations, 



i 



16 

we are uott and have been suffering for tlie want of increased occn- 
patious, wliicli will come to us with increased diversification of arts 
and products. 

An international exhibition is of the first necessity to disclose to us 
the wide range of these arts and industries, a monopoly of which im- 
proved training in applied science and art now secures to a few Euro- 
pean nations. 

Can we afford to lose this golden opportunity or lessen by delay its 
redeeming effects? Shall we gain a half century in progress at a 
single bound, or shall we give up the race, as if we, as a republic, were 
incapable of competing with monarchical nations in the great race of 
human progTess ? 

NECESSITY OF GOVEENMENTAL EECOGXITION. 

Mr. Speaker, to my mind many of the arguments used by the op- 
ponents of the pending bill" are as unreasonable, not to say ridiculous, 
as the reply of the old lady who, when recently asked to subscribe to 
the stock of the centennial board of finance, said she would not sub- 
scribe a single dollar until the money raised for the last centennial 
had been accounted for. And the most unreasonable of all these argu- 
ments is, in my oijinion, that which would entirely disconnect the Gov- 
ernment from our proposed international exhibition, even in the face 
of the two acts of Congress uj)on the statute-books to which I have 
referred. Not only is it too late to undo this legislation without unend- 
ing disgrace to the nation, but it is absolutely essential that the Gov- 
ernment should be fully identified with the undertaking in order to 
secure co-operation from abroad. The powers which have acted favor- 
ably upon the President's proclamation of July last have done so with 
the understanding that it was an official invitation to a national 
aftair, and those holding back are only awaiting to be sure that such 
is the character of the invitation or commendation. 

Baron Schwarz, the director general of tlie Vienna exhibition, 
when recently asked how foreign governments could be interested 
in the centennial exhibition, replied : " Through the action of your 
home Government and of its diplomatic agents abroad. The managers 
of your exhibition cannot address themselves directly to foreign gov- 
ernments. As far as Europe is concerned, it must be an exhibition 
made hy tlw United States and not by private parties." Hence the im- 
portance of governmental sanction and support at every step, and 
the danger of the impression which must inevitably go abroad from 
the defeat of the measure now under discussion. 

Mr. Speaker, the great and ever-growing West, the broad region of 
mountain and plain beyond the Mississippi, feels a deep interest in the 
success of the centennial exhibition. That vast country, if unexplored 
and uninliabited, save by the wily savage, when the dechiration of 



17 

1776 was made, is now musical with the voice of industry and its busy 
people are second to none in the Union in their devotion to the prin- 
ciples upon which the Government was founded and has so signally 
flourished. They want to join heartily with the men of the North, 
the South, and the East in making the demonstrations of 1876 such as 
must be memorable in the annals of the Republic and of the world. 
The Pacific coast, with its thrifty States and Territories, what a wealth 
of display may it contribute to the great exhibition! Already a hun- 
dred boxes of specimens of precious ores have reached Philadelphia 
from this El Dorado, which since the London exhibition of 1851 has 
yielded to the world more than |)1,500,000,000 in gold and silver, and 
has grown to be an empire in itself. 

When before in the history of mankind have there arisen within a 
period so brief social organizations of such magnitude and impor- 
tance, embracing such varied resoiu-ces, embodying so much wealth 
and enterprise, so much intellectual power and civic experience, as 
are combined in these latest-born oifspring of the Republic that have 
cradled themselves amid the murmurs of the Pacific ? The dreams 
of romance have been more than realized in the sober facts of their 
recent history ; and their progress from unpeopled solitudes to repub- 
lican provinces would transcend the limits of credulity anywhere but 
among a people accustomed to the transformations which the Amer- 
ican continent alone has presented. 

Dared I but say a prophecy, 

As sang the holy men of old, 

Of rock-bnilt cities yet to be, 

Along these shining shores of gold, 

Crowding athirst into the sea, 

"What wondrous marvels might be told ! 

In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, I have to say that apart from the ques- 
tion of sentiment aroused by this debate, sentiment in which our 
fathers fondly indulged, and of which we cannot, in my judgment, 
have too much, it seems to me that the representatives of the people 
in Congress assembled will be warranted by every consideration of 
national honor, dignity, and interest in insuring the success of the 
centennial exhibition, whatever amount it may be necessary to ap- 
propriate for such purpose. If any nation can afford to be liberal and 
should be liberal on such an occasion it is this ; and knowing the peo- 
ple from the Atlantic to the Pacific as I do, I am satisfied beyond the 
shadow of a doubt, whatever may here be intimated to the contrary, 
that if the popular vote could be polled on the subject the verdict 
would be, "Make it as grand, as noble, as memorable as the Republic 
is resplendent in its history, its achievements, its vast dominions, and 
its world-wide renown." 
2 MoG 

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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